Mumbai Indians (MI) leg-spinner Piyush Chawla has revealed that veteran opener Rohit Sharma was compelled to play as an impact substitute in the IPL match against Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) on Friday (May 4) due to a "mild back stiffness".
Rohit managed to score just 11 runs off 12 balls as MI fell 24 runs short while chasing KKR’s target of 170 at the Wankhede Stadium.
It was Mumbai’s eighth defeat in 11 games this season and their chances of qualifying for the playoffs are now all but over.
"He just had a mild back stiffness so it was just a precautionary thing," Chawla told the media after the match.
Chawla acknowledged that they will play for "pride and reputation" in the remaining league matches of the ongoing IPL season.
"For the pride and the reputation, because sometimes when you enter on the field, you don't think whether you are going to qualify or you are not going to qualify," the 35-year-old said.
"You have to play for your name and that's what we are playing for," he added.
According to Chawla, MI's lack of momentum throughout this IPL season is the cause of their subpar play.
"You must have often heard about that T20 is all about momentum and just that we didn't get that momentum going this season and it can happen to any team," he remarked.
"It's not like it's happening to us for the first time or any other team for the second time. It can happen to anyone and it's just that that momentum was not our way."
During the match against KKR, Piyush Chawla became the second-highest wicket-taker in IPL history, surpassing Dwayne Bravo’s tally to claim 184 wickets
"It has been a beautiful journey because IPL started 17 years back and at that time nobody gave that much preference to the spinners, but now if you see that in top few wicket takers in India, especially all the spinners, Ashwin, Yuzi, myself (are there), so it's a good feeling," he said.
Chawla was also appreciative of Venkatesh Iyer (70 off 52) and Manish Pandey (42 off 31) as the pair stitched an 83-run partnership when KKR were reeling at 57/5 in 6.1 overs.
"It was a good partnership and credit has to go to them because they batted beautifully. Well, T20 is something in which experience plays a big role, (which is) what we saw today.
"When Manish walked in, maybe if somebody walks in who must have played few games, he would have panicked that runs are not coming.
"But he read the situation and the way he handled the situation because if you see in starting, he was hardly going at run a ball. But later on, he knew that he has to stand there with Venky."
(With PTI inputs)
